"I have been changed to be a better person, but I have also been changed permanently, for good. Theres no going back. Theres no going back. The second life of For Good Amidst cheers and ballyhoo to borrow a phrase from Glinda a second Wicked movie is now hitting theaters. To mark the distinction between this movie and its predecessor, the 2025 edition is called Wicked: For Good. For Good, the song, has attained an unusual second life outside of the musical. In Wicked, Jewish composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz launched a number of forever entries into the musical theater book of standards Defying Gravity, Popular, The Wizard and I but For Good belongs to an exclusive category: songs that have become staples at graduations, retirement celebrations and funerals. If you see a cap and gown, you are not safe from a heartfelt rendition of For Good. If there is a casket on a table, these days you may be as likely to hear For Good as you are to hear Wind Beneath My Wings or Candle in the Wind. As a cantor, its impossible to hear For Good from Wicked without sensing that the song is doing something deeply Jewish, whether or not its creators intended it, said Neil Michaels of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan. It has become, in many sanctuaries and life-cycle moments, a kin"

"As a cantor, its impossible to hear For Good from Wicked without sensing that the song is doing something deeply Jewish, whether or not its creators intended it, said Neil Michaels of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan."

"Ive played it for a funeral, said Joe Wicht, who has accompanied singers for 18 years at the San Francisco piano bar Martunis."

"Drew Wutke, a pianist at Maries Crisis, the famed Broadway musical singalong bar in the West Village, is used to looking up from the piano during For Good and seeing drinkers crying into their tequila sodas."

"When 75-year-old Melbourne resident Des Flannery was in his late 60s, he got into a fight with his best friend, Max."

"Ali, a friend of mine, and a 31-year-old interior designer from Los Angeles, grew up singing songs from Wicked with her friend Brittany."

"But Victoria, 21, who sang the song just a few years ago at her high school graduation in Port Richey, Florida, begs to differ."